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Yemeni diplomat: The victim worked for the German Embassy's security detail

Gunmen killed a German national who was a member of the security detail of the German Embassy in Sanaa on Sunday, according to a Yemeni diplomat with knowledge of the situation.

The shooting occurred outside an upscale supermarket in the Yemeni capital.

Witnesses said that the embassy employee was in the supermarket's parking lot when two gunmen opened fire.

"Twenty minutes later more than a dozen German forces accompanied by Yemeni Special Forces arrived to the scene," said Shukri al-Sharabi, a witness to the incident.

The Yemeni diplomat told CNN that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is believed to be behind the attack.

"It looks like these targeted AQAP assassinations are only going to get worse. If this continues at this rate, we'll be heading toward a complete collapse of the security apparatus in Yemen," the Yemeni diplomat told CNN.

The German Embassy in Sanaa did not immediately comment on the attack.

Also in Yemen on Sunday, a foreign national working for UNICEF was kidnapped by gunmen, three Interior Ministry officials told CNN.

The UNICEF employee was on the way to the airport when he was kidnapped along with his driver, an Interior Ministry official said. The driver was later released.

Yemen has seen a sharp rise in kidnappings amid political unrest in recent years.